St Paul de Vence: random sculptures

When I visited St Paul de Vence some years ago I had no idea that I would be using my pics in a blog.  With the result I didn’t take note of the artists.  But the works, for my taste, are impressive.  Like South Korea, the culture in France is old and art is part of their daily existence.  I share some images.

Made entirely from horseshoes

 

I can’t explain why but I found this work striking and memorable.  Maybe because it is simple and solid.  I took several pics.

 

Around the corner was this bird …  Well, I think it’s a bird …

 

Then, these staring eyes …

 

Two of the best are these of a flying human being.  I liked the one so much that I made it an icon for one of my other blogs.  They may be different angles on the same thing.

 

This is not a sculpture, but I find it interesting … a frontdoor relief.  Note the peephole.

 

I found this one memorable as it balanced on poles above a narrow St Paul street in the sunset.  I think it may be by an artist called Lavarenne.

©  Will

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

March, 2021

 

My pics, published by RotsWolk Publishers

 

 

Not a sculpture, but as found art this sunset on that visit wasn’t half bad.

Ste Reparate, Nice

The completion of Ste Reparate, the cathedral in the medieval quarter of Nice, took place in 1699, the year that Willem Adriaan van der Stel crossed the threshhold of Vergelegen in Somerset West.  It is an interesting reflection that both buildings were baroque in style, but they couldn’t be more different.  Ste Reparate was built on the foundation of a medieval cathedral which itself had been built on the foundations of churches from the fifth century a.d.  It wouldn’t surprise me if this ground was once the foundation of Roman temples.

The facade is classic baroque.  The tower though, was added in the 19th-century.  It was named after a second century martyr, Ste Reparate.  My photographs have had a graphic treatment and I rather like the effect of the negative which, if some detail is lost, gives the images a strange, dream-like feel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

©  Will

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

March, 2021

 

Source

Cathédrale Sainte Reparate de Nice – Wikipedia 

 

Images

Cathedral – Wikipedia

My photographs

 

“Is Paris burning?”

There are pieces of history that stand out for me and serve as defining moments.  Such is a piece is the “Is Paris burning?” question asked by Hitler in August, 1944, when the Allies were advancing on Paris and the Germans were retreating.  After the assassination attempt of July, his behavior seemed to border on insanity.  It must have been clear to any rational person that the idea of a 1000-year reich was done for.  He appointed Choltitz to raze Paris to the ground.  He had given similar instructions to the generals in Italy:  destroy Florence.

Hitler and colleagues at the Eiffel Tower, June, 1940

The leader in France and those in Italy faced a terrible decision.  They had enough European blood in their veins to see the wider implication.  Such destruction was needless revenge.  85% of the city of Warsaw had been cruelly and systematically destroyed by the Germans and what had they gained?

Choltitz, as with a number of other German leaders in France, felt that Hitler had lost it.  With careful planning, the decision to destroy Paris was delayed until the Germans left France.  Some of the oldest and most remarkable buildings, the Eiffel Tower included, had already been wired with bombs.  The order to detonate this never came.

In the award-winning 1966 film, “Is Paris burning?”, there is at the end, while the crowds are celebrating their liberation, a scene of a telephone lying off its hook.  The question “Is Paris burning?”, Hitler’s voice copied, is heard over and over.

 

© Will

www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

March, 2021

 

Sources

Wikipedia:  “Is Paris burning?”

Wikipedia:  The destruction of Warsaw

 

Robert Delauney: Tour Eiffel

 

Reflections

Post-modern architectural designs thrive on glass cladding.  Some designs of buildings are expressly designed to use the reflections for enhancing the general image.  In Seoul, I saw this reflection in a white-tiled building.

And a further shot.

My interest is in what happens to the straight line.  The building, so solid and permanent, takes on a fragile, even dream-like image.  With the following image, one has to look quite carefully to see that you are looking at a reflection.

 

The curved glass cladding in the following image was remarkable, reflecting the building behind me.

 

This little nook intrigued me:  see what the glass does to that pillar.

Here too, one has to look carefully past the illusion that those are merely other buildings.

I touched this one up with the contrast function.

 

This unusual shot is the sun shining on a building that casts a reflection on the building opposite.  The contrast function was also used here.

© Will

http://www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com

Les Semboules, Antibes

March, 2021

 

My photographs, published by RotsWolk Publishers

 

See too

Reflecting on the buildings at L’Arenas  WWT  20.2.2013

Post-Modern architecture  –  WWT  Two posts on 16.5.2018